The AIM Blogger

I'm proud to announce that ten of my classmates passed the very challenging Chartered Financial Analyst Level 1 exam last June. I heard the exam was very difficult that it makes the Financial Management exams a cake walk.:P Here's the list of our finance whiz kids (in alphabetical order): Saurabh Arya Nitin Bhagnari Riteesh Bhargava Pankaj Dhawan Gaurav Goyal Gaurav Kwatra Anton Ng Gaurav Sharma Sandeep Sharma Amit Vijay Congratulations to all! :D

I attended a lecture of the AIM Policy Center 's Energy Policy Series entitled " Shaping California's Energy Future: Protecting Economy and Environment " and the guest lecturer was Terrence O'Brien, Deputy Director of the California Energy Commission. I attended the talk because energy is such a hot topic these days-- with the rising cost of fuel, the mad scramble to find the best alternative energy resource and its effects on the world economy and other markets. Mr. O'Brien gave an overview of the California government's initiatives in promoting "Green" energy, i.e. renewable energy and the specific programs the state governments are undertaking. There was also a discussion on what the Philippine government is doing in this front and members of the audience were given copies of the " Renewable Energy Act of 2008 ." The talk was very informative and it raised issued of "food vs. fuel," or the use of land to cultivate the n...

Thanks to Kapil Dhar, I found the results of the QS TopMBA.com International Recruiter Survey 2007 , in which the Asian Institute of Management ranked #11 in the Asia-Pacific business school list. Recruiters deemed AIM behind the likes of Insead Singapore, Melbourne Business School, AGSM, Macquarie (MGSM), CEIBS, NUS, Monash University, HKUST, IIM Bangalore, and the Nanyang Business School. This find was pretty timely, considering that people in our MBA class are becoming more and more wary of placement-related activities. Of course, the results of the QS survey can be encouraging or discouraging, depending on how you look at it.

Last Friday, our New Products and Services Development (NPSD) class under Prof. Jay Bernardo went on a field trip to Corregidor Island as part of our opportunity seeking exercises. The objective of the trip was to have our NPSD groups think of a venture that can be successful in the island. Thinking of a business in Corregidor Island is a bit of a challenge. It's basically a World War II ruins site with a rich military history-- the Battle of Corregidor was fought there and it was temporarily the seat of the Philippine government during the war. There are plenty of old bombed buildings, big guns and natural formations that has made Corregidor a viable tourist spot. Our group has meet briefly and we are considering an option that leverages on the island's location and very peaceful atmosphere.

Professor James Neelankavil will be having a talk here at the Asian Institute of Management about the Fortune 500 companies in a little while. For those who are unfamiliar with Prof. Neelankavil, I got this little write-up from Ms. Eloisa Osabel from the Marketing department to give you an idea who the speaker is: The Asian Institute of Management (AIM) is privileged to have Professor James Neelankavil as one of its distinguished faculty roster. He earned his AIM MBM degree with distinction on 1972. He later pursued his Doctorate Degree in Philosophy, major in International Business, minor in Marketing from Stern School of Business, New York University. Despite his accomplishments and international degrees that he completed, he appeals to be very simple. Yet, he exudes a dignified aura as an international educator. It was after his graduation in AIM when he was inspired by Dean Gabino Mendoza to start his teaching career. As he stated in the interview, his teaching career was de...

Ask one thing that's on the mind of the MBA students in our class today and, chances are, you'll get two replies: The Management Research Report and Career Placement. We had an orientation from the Enrolment Management and Placement (EMP) department, a recently-formed unit during a reorganization of the Asian Institute of Management last January. This new unit integrates the old Career Management Services folks and is still part of the school's efforts to improve operations, including career placements. EMP head Prof. Eligio Santos led the orientation, along with career placement officers Mary May Pagkatipunana and Maybelle Funańoz. The orientation really was more like a reality check for our batch as numbers were presented. The CMS success numbers have been rising like gas prices in the last three years, but it seems it has hit a little speed bump. The 2007 MBA batch was had averaged multiple offers, but the 2008 MBA averaged almost 1 per student only. Another intere...

My group in my New Products and Services Development (NPSD) class organized a walking tour of Bindondo, the oldest Chinatown in the world. This little activity is actually part of the class to do something interesting, and at the same time, get some sparks of inspiration for starting a little venture. Our guide for the tour was Anson of Old Manila Walks . The walking tour also has a different "flavor" because it's also a food tour-- we get to try out authentic Chinese food and delicacies while going around the historical sites and notable locations. Anson is definitely very knowledgable about the ins and outs of the town and he took us to very places with great food (Just ask our teacher, Prof. Jay Bernardo ). Too bad I got lost driving to Binondo, we could have started half an hour sooner for the tour (I just can't get around Manila!). Our group (Nina Laquindanum, Mark Ong, Arpita Maity and Lan Phuong Vu) would like to thank Connie Banaag, Pia Sanedrin, Johnso...